Category Archives: Poetry

Ode to a Princess

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Princess Westi - 1988

I stand in awe
Heart brimming and inspired
By her boundless spirit
Lively and wonderful.

Then and now.

First and always
There was adoration
Of her joyous bounce
Snuggly and playful.

Despair followed
As dissatisfaction prevailed
Perceiving others to have more
At times overruling
Essential happiness.

Self-proclaimed princess
Laughingly acknowledged
Fondly accommodated by the doting King
Source of friction with the reluctant Queen.

But no more.

Still a princess
Graduated from girlhood
To lovely woman marked by
Compassionate wisdom
Graceful, thoughtful, loving.

I marvel at her
Focus and inner strength
Her evolution inspires belief
In the promise of the future.

No longer reluctant
I proudly proclaim myself
A subject of Princess Westi.

I stand in awe.
I bow to the Princess.

This post is overdue, as I’ve said before, not for lack of caring or intention. Sometimes it takes a while to say what you mean. And even with time, it’s not always adequate. The above is my attempt at expressing my sentiments about Westi. A poet I am not, but poetry seemed fitting, and so I tried. Although inspired by her college graduation from San José State University (she finished her degree in December 2004, but “walked” last month), a mere congratulatory announcement felt lacking. Westi was never “just” a student. She integrated her studies into a full working, living, breathing life. And her college graduation, although a significant achievement, is just one of so many milestone accomplishments in her life. Not the least of which is the way she has blossomed as a person into an absolutely wonderful human being. That’s not the stuff of ceremony and announcements, but it’s most important to me.

That said … Woo, you worked hard and achieved much. We bask in your glory. CONGRATULATIONS!

Princess Westi - 2005

For Isa: Thoughts on the Afterlife

This entry was posted in Poetry on by .

Don’t waste your pity on the one gone.
If she was awake, she’ll stick around –
a milkweed pod now burst open
and blown by the wind. She is
everywhere at once, untamable.
Hear her voice, still laughing.

Even the one unawake, the soul barely
cracked out of it’s tight-fisted shell,
merely sleeps through the next life,
to be wakened gently in time for the
resurrection. If I were God, that’s how
I’d design it, and surely God has
a bigger heart than mine.

For the ready-made angel,
there are several jobs
for which she’s been
training all her life:
imaginary friend of only children,
prophetess to taunted adolescent,
keeper of lovers gone but not forgotten,
keeper of hope in countries not forsaken,
witness to the small kindness,
profligate spender of praise

Too shy to sing, she’ll stand behind,
elbows jutting like pointy wings, and
chiding: “You don’t have to eat all
the problems of the world in one bite.
Digest a little first, it will keep.”

She will tell you that you are
an otherworldly being,
a leap in a new evolution,
a translator of birdsong.
She will ask to skywrite
your poem in the clouds.
It will be harder to believe
without her voice, but your ego
never lies this extravagantly.

In fact, dare I say, bless
the passing that releases the one
that we would hoard and keep.
As spirit, she covers the earth,
relaying our message of love
more reliably than words,
which often confuse what we mean.
Small and nimble, she is everywhere,
willful and fierce, at last.
The horizons dimple her smile.
Share her unquenchable delight.

~ Tereza Coraggio